Computerization of African languages-French dictionaries

This paper relates work done during the DiLAF project. It consists in converting 5 bilingual African language-French dictionaries originally in Word format into XML following the LMF model. The languages processed are Bambara, Hausa, Kanuri, Tamajaq and Songhai-zarma, still considered as under-resourced languages concerning Natural Language Processing tools. Once converted, the dictionaries are available online on the Jibiki platform for lookup and modification. The DiLAF project is first presented. A description of each dictionary follows. Then, the conversion methodology from .doc format to XML files is presented. A specific point on the usage of Unicode follows. Then, each step of the conversion into XML and LMF is detailed. The last part presents the Jibiki lexical resources management platform used for the project.Comment: 8 page

Teaching World English

[INTRODUCTION] Once learners of English have achieved some basic skill in English, they will begin to learn from sources outside the classroom. Students will either come across or actively seek out English in its written and spoken forms. Any teacher will want to encourage this and reward students for what they learn outside the classroom. The students’ desire to hear and read English will be recognised as a sign of commitment. But all teachers need to give some thought to the kinds of English their students may bring back to the classroom, and need to anticipate some of the difficulties that exposure to the complex world of real English can bring about. (Continues..

Comparative analysis of English and Russian idioms of nationality and ethnicity

http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2654459~S1*es

New directions in the study of family names

This paper explores and explains recent radical developments in resources and methodology for studying the origins, cultural associations, and histories of family names (also called ‘surnames’). It summarizes the current state of the art and outlines new resources and procedures that are now becoming available. It shows how such innovations can enable the correction of errors in previous work and improve the accuracy of dictionaries of family names, with a focus on the English-speaking world. Developments such as the digitization of archives are having a profound effect, not only on the interpretation and understanding of traditional, ‘established’ family names and their histories, but also of names in other languages and other cultures. There are literally millions of different family names in the world today, many of which have never been studied at all. What are good criteria for selection of entries in a dictionary of family names, and what can be said about them? What is the nature of the evidence? How stable (or how variable) are family names over time? What are the effects of factors such as migration? What is the relationship between family names and geographical locations, given that people can and do move around? What is the relationship between traditional philological and historical approaches to the subject and statistical analysis of newly available digitized data? The paper aims to contribute to productive discussion of such questions